A Quick Chat with Justine Eltakchi
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your latest single Petals?
Petals is the space in all of us that wants to be loved exactly as we are - it's uncomplicated. I was inspired by a few things - How I'd like to be loved, how I want to love others and mostly how I'd want to raise my future children.
How did your motherhood experience experience shape the way you approached your new song 'Petals'
Falling pregnant is a crazy experience - all of a sudden you're hit with the responsibility of raising and loving another human forever - The daunting experience of facing your own inner struggles fast tracks your wishes for your baby and their life. Petals is about unconditional love. When Emma Greenhill and I sat together to produce the song, we knew it had to feel good, and have a pure and organic essence in the instrumentation - Like the song's sentiment, we wanted it to feel like coming home.
Your debut album Big Dream Baby is on the way, what does this record represent for you at this stage of your life?
This album is a culmination of my life experiences and the stories of my family. From my grandparents' migration to Australia and life in regional NSW, my mum moving to Sydney as a teen by herself, and my own life in regional NSW and the Blue Mountains. This album is about transience, searching for home, and the experience within most of us; a yearning to belong and a desire to dream. The album is so much bigger than me and I am forever grateful to the people who inspired it and taught me resilience and courage.
You’ve spent years writing for other artists, what made now the right time to release an album under your name?
To be honest I'd take an indefinite break from music early 2025. I lost my grandmother and my manager Di Torossian within the space of a month in 2024, and I felt very disorientated with my career and creativity. I knew I had to put the breaks on. It is such a paradox that when you stop gripping tightly, the world begins to flow. By May 2025 I was pregnant and the songs began flowing out of me. Grief and surrender can do strange things - I felt like I had found who I was again and where I began musically: just me and the piano or guitar in my home. I realised I had been avoiding myself in a way and it was time to be brave and release my first ever album.
What does the idea of “home” mean to you, and how does it show up in your music?
Home isn’t just one thing to me, it’s transient, it’s where love is, but it can also be difficult or imperfect. In this album, I wanted to reflect those different sides while honouring the way many Australians carry intergenerational memories and experiences of both pain and healing. My song ‘Frangipani’ explores the challenges of living with someone with depression, while ‘Start Again’ is the story of my grandmother fleeing her home in Europe during the war in the middle of night, never to return.
There’s a strong thread of family history and intergenerational storytelling across the album — where did that come from?
My grandparents are from Europe and the Middle East, and I wanted to draw on their experiences of leaving after WWII and building lives from scratch in Australia. Those stories are so important to me because they shaped who I became.
You’ve collaborated with artists like Casey Donovan and Timothy James Bowen on this album how have those experiences influenced your own artistry?
My duet with Casey Donovan "Daughters and Sons" was a very organic collaboration - I released a solo version in December (Funnily enough on my child's due date!) but I knew it would be super special to have Casey sing this song with me. She offers a different perspective and of course her incredible voice on this track - it is always cool to see how a song is reinterpreted. This is the second time Casey and I have worked together and I am so honoured! I've been friends with Timothy James Bowen for a few years and I've admired his talent a lot - "If I Could" was originally written from a male perspective, so to turn it into a duet added an extra layer of meaning - the song became about both people admitting their flaws in the relationship.
What does your creative process usually look like when writing a new song?
When writing solo, I always start on piano or guitar. I tend to just tinker around until I feel a song coming to the surface - I never go in with an agenda. I find that there are always songs and words inside that are trying to make their way out!
Debut Album Big Dream Baby, Out 24th April 2026